Is the Internet Making People a Little Bit Autistic?

Is technology making today's kids a bit autistic?

One of the key components of Asperger's and autism is blindness to the nonverbal messages of other people. That blindness translates into a lack of emotional reciprocity, or responsiveness. After all, how can we respond if we don't receive the message?

You smile, and I gaze back with a flat expression. You make a big frown, and my expression doesn't change. That's a sign of autism. Do the same thing with a neurotypical person - someone who isn't autistic - and they will instinctively mimic your expressions.

Most of that ability to mimic others is innate - it's prewired in our brains and it emerges in early childhood. But what we do after the initial reaction is learned, and the way we integrate ourselves into society via nonverbal messages - that's almost all learned.

Autistic people are set apart because we don't get the emotional signals from others to trigger the response and learning process. Therefore, even though we can learn many social interactions, they don't come naturally to us. And we're always awkward because we're blind to the triggers that are automatic in neurotypical people.

I submit that something similar is happening with America's youth, for a different reason.

Today's kids spend more and more time in front of computers, and more and more of their communication is electronic. For every minute spent in front of a computer, a minute interacting with other people face to face is lost. As a result, today's kids are not learning the fine points of nonverbal interaction. They don't interact in person enough to acquire the skills.

They smile when someone smiles at them, because that's built in. However, they are not learning where to go from there. They are not learning the fine points of face to face interaction in our society. I say "our society" because the fine points of interpersonal interactions do differ between societies and cultures, and what's rude to you may be expected and normal behavior on the other side of the world. But without face-to-face contact, how can today's kids learn that?

Instead, many of today's young people learn the subtleties of text messaging and email. They say, I can be connected to the whole world electronically, and that's true in a sense. The problem is, that electronic connectedness may come at the expense of learning how to act on a date, or in a group, or at a party. And those are vital skills every young person needs.

I've spent much of my life trying to master face-to-face interaction with others. It's amazing to me, the idea that kids today may be casually disregarding a skill I've worked so hard to master. And it's such an insidious thing . . . they don't even see it happening. But it is. It's brain plasticity in action. Our brains build up the neural paths we use, and prune the ones we ignore. Yesterday's paths led to your friend next door, and the girl in Social Studies and maybe Uncle Bob. Tomorrow's paths lead to through the Xbox to some game enthusiast in China, and through the Blackberry to a like-minded person in Canada.

The physical connection, and the skill to develop and maintain it, is vanishing. Is the tradeoff worth it?

As a person with Asperger's, I have always had great success when communicating by writing, because my limited ability to respond to nonverbal cues does not matter in the written domain. You readers can't see my face . . . you only read my words. I'm grateful that I have the gift of writing in a clear and articulate manner. It's given me communication success that I could never have enjoyed otherwise.

But to me, written interaction is not enough. In my last blog post, I wrote of my sense of aloneness, and my desire to join the community of mankind. To me, that is only done in person. I assumed (perhaps wrongly) that everyone felt that way, but now I'm not sure . . .

Perhaps the integration of electronic communication into our lives has precipitated a new evolutionary step, and the way tomorrow's adults will engage one another is fundamentally different from the way I and everyone before did so.

I wonder how it will work out.

The idea of "computer enhanced evolution" makes me a little uneasy, and that's what we are experiencing today, as we integrate computer based communication into the very wiring of our brains.

Wonderful question... and very well stated. It stimulates my thoughts on the subject in new directions and causes more questions.

Are you implying that there is an increase in the diagnosis of autism because of this computer phenomenon? Could be true since babies and infants are placed infront of TV's and Computer screens very early for entertainment. This is a very scary thought.

As for older kids and even adults, this could result is autistic tendencies. My experience with teenagers on up is that this new mega communication networking has caused a great increase in the number of people they "keep up with." They are developing new social skills of communication. There is a whole new language to communicate emotions, double entendres, sarcasm and inflection - as well as a "twinkle in the eye" through typing. Sometimes it can cause MORE social, face to face interactions to meet spontaneously through e-mail or twitter alerts. I think there is another side to this phenomenon that deserves attention.

That said, I do agree that there is a serious situation of people isolating themselves with video games and computers that is NOT healthy. I fear that this will increase with the economic situation. It has been well recognized the dangers of lack of exercise and fresh air that has occurred. an increase of this isolation in times of recession can only deepen the sadness and depression felt from these constraints. The learned ability to interact with others can be unlearned in times of fear, depression, and isolation.

That's an interesting theory. I wonder if growing up in an environment where the dominant culture is different from your home culture can do the same thing. Maybe I'm socially incompetent not because of genetics, but because I was left alone at home a lot and at school people spoke a different language on the playground. I had a deprivation of face to face interaction similar to that of today's "Web 2.0" youth, but for a different reason.

As someone in his late 20's, when I was in junior high, AOL first hit the scene as a new communication method. I have seen this turn into facebook and MySpace, pay phones turn into pagers and then into cell phones.

I have thought for a very long time now that people lack face to face interactions. I have noticed that this can breed a lack of responsibility in others as well as a lack of face to face. It used to be if you said you would be somewhere at a certain time, you HAD to be there or you risked making your acquaintance wonder where you are. Now, one can send a text to let others know they will be late. This also applied to the dating world. If I said I would call a girl at 7, and her brother was on the phone, I couldn't talk to her. I would have to wait until the next day. Now, nearly everyone has their own phones. This makes it too easy to be aloof about timeliness and respect.

Great post, posing some interesting questions, and the comments are intriguing. I don't concur the trend in text communication and web socializing is as detrimental to social complexity as others believe. In fact, while face to face communication may seem to be decreasing, I would point out that from toddlers to seniors, we as a society still HAVE to interact with each other (i.e. at school, work, sports events, social events, et cetera.) Instead of decreasing face to face communication, perhaps (especially) teens and the new "Web 2.0" generation are embracing increased communication via other networks.

The amount of face time is relatively the same. But now, I can talk to you when I'm with you or when I'm up the street or when I'm across the world. This ability to communicate across social and cultural boundaries (i.e. an urban kid in the bronx can talk to a farmer's kid in nebraska and be best friends) is actually laudable and worthy of closer examination for its good points. The use of text and internet to communicate is also far more complex than innate, and the neural bridges being created are expansive and flexible enough to benefit whether you're online or in board meetings. For example, understanding the subtle nuances of a memo from your boss could be an important ability. You can't get it face to face. It's a memo.

Think about just a few of the barriers that are in place (and displaced) during face to face communication: race, beauty, disabilities, et cetera. Humans, hardwired to categorize, just may be recircuiting. Maybe the next generation will be programed to seek out mind over what doesn't matter.

...and "[t]his ability to communicate across social and cultural boundaries (i.e. an urban kid in the bronx can talk to a farmer's kid in nebraska and be best friends) is actually laudable and worthy of closer examination for its good points." sounds quaint and hopelessly idealistic.

The above quote was posted by Shamrock in 2008 and in 2015 there is still a tendency, I think, to overestimate the benefits of computer mediated communication. It is interesting how the Internet and mobile communication systems are enthusiastically embraced as a vital step to achieving that elusive utopian society and as a panacea for humanity's shortcomings. Is there evidence for these grandiose claims? Going back to the example above, how many urban kids in the Bronx actually have a best-friend in rural Nebraska?

Information technology is in its infancy and developing at a breakneck pace. Listening to podcast of academics in 2010 debating the merits of Facebook, MySpace and that new Twitter thing one is struck by how dated and naive their predictions and assumptions sound. The digital revolution (and it is a revolution) is barely 20 years-old and the long-term effects of machine mediated communication on individuals and society are yet to be determined. If anything tension between people within Western nations, and also tension between nation states on the world stage, has increased in the last decade. Income inequality is growing by leaps and bounds in many prosperous nations, climate change may profoundly alter our way of life yet these topics are almost taboo even though there is good evidence supporting both. Ubiquitous mobile phone use and eschewing face to face contact in favor of Facebook is not going to magically change the world for the better.

The following excerpt, also taken from the 2008 post I'm replying to, is another example of, frankly, deluded thinking that has no basis in reality. Here is the quote: "Think about just a few of the barriers that are in place (and displaced) during face to face communication: race, beauty, disabilities, et cetera. Humans, hardwired to categorize, just may be recircuiting. Maybe the next generation will be programed to seek out mind over what doesn't matter."

My intuition doesn't prove anything either way but I just don't foresee that glorious egalitarian utopia emerging on this planet any time soon. However, we are definitely living in interesting times!

I agree that one good thing about written communication is that it sidesteps issue of race, physical appearance, foreign accent or language, etc. For the first time, it’s possible for two people to get to know one another for their minds alone, without the influence of first impressions from physical observation.

In that way, the Internet has brought together some pretty unlikely combinations of people successfully and in doing so, it does help break down some long standing barriers and prejudices.

We already see that the Internet is a wonderful gift to many people with autism and other neurological differences, who were previously unable to engage in meaningful conversations with new people because of their own differences.

I do applaud that, but it’s not the point I wanted to make. My point is that gains in this type of communication come at the expense of face-to-face communication skills, as kids choose to interact virtually instead of in person. As kids develop without face-to-face communication skill, they can be fundamentally disadvantaged in life just as those with autism are disadvantaged today.

Time will tell if there is a net gain, when you balance that against texting and memo reading skill. I just don’t know.

I'm sure the ubiquitous television has had a much more damaging effect, together with the current trend to imprison small children in the house.
We have children beginning school who have minimal social and motor skills. Computers might not be going to help much, but they aren't the main enemy.

I'd caution against romanticizing "face time" with others. Most of us don't see our close friends too often even when they live just up the street.

We do, though, see other people everyday, and most of them range from uninteresting to annoying or threatening. That's not because they suck - they're just not on our wavelength. The internet is nice because it makes it much easier to find and stay in contact with people who are on our wavelength, even if they don't happen to live just up the street.

As you point out, that doesn't replace the warmth of being in the presence of a friend, but it does make it possible to expand your social circle, to find intellectual stimulation that might simply not be available for you in your neighborhood. In that way, it's not so different from the letters our founding fathers wrote each other during the majority of time when they were isolated on their estates with only ignorant farmhands to talk to. Call it non-instant messaging.

Lastly, I've also personally witnessed some people overcome debilitating shyness by slowly developing "people skills" online (and of course, later in the real world)

I hadn't really thought of this aspect of technology before - but you raise a really interesting point. For my part, I thank God for all the advances in technology. They have allowed me a level of social interaction and success that I've never had on a face to face level.

I think that computers have actually helped me to develop my social skills. Not necessarily the face to face ones (other than what I have learned by Googling "facial expressions" or "body language"), but the reciprocity.

For me, the online world caters to my strengths. I've always been able to write much more articulately that I could speak, at least reliably. My neurology tends to interfere at with oral speach at random, odd times, so while I know what I want to say, and have the language skills to say it, I am never 100% sure that my mouth will cooperate to form the words in an articulate way.

The online world removes this barrier to communication for me, and allows me to speak the way I would if I didn't have those neurological barriers. And it also allows me to focus more on the substance of the interaction, without the constant effort to multi-task attention between trying to figure out body language, follow multiple concurrent conversations, etc. Having the "practice" online, I think, has made me more social in real life.

In your book, you talked about having "satisfactory social exchanges" which kept you from withdrawing. I think for many, the internet has become that. So, a further question for you. If computers are making NTs more autistic, and those with autism more social, what does that mean?

Lynne, I do think computers are making NTs act autistic and helping Aspergians blend in seamlessly in the electronic world.

Indeed, it's made us all equal, judged only by pure written thought. Our halting speech, warts, funny hair . . . none of those things matter one bit. It does not matter if you are male or female or gay or straight or black or white . . . all those typical "requirements" for establishing a friendship based upon some common ground have evaporated. The only common ground is the ideas we write.

But the thing is . . . we still must exist in the real world to get jobs, find mates, raise kids, etc.

Very true, but my point is that I have found that, for me, the successes that I have had online have actually transferred to real world interactions.

When I was a kid, the only way to be social was to actually speak to the other kids. So, by the time I was introduced to the online world, most of the social groundwork had been set by by hard work in the trenches - trial and error in the real world.
But, when trying to interact face to face, there was always a lot of "noise," both sensory and otherwise, that slowed me down. Because of that, my understanding of social behavior tended to remain at a superficial level - certain facets of interaction continued to elude me.

The online world, by removing that "noise," allowed me to actually learn new skills that NT people would have learned long ago, through typical face to face situations. Because it removes the typical barriers, it gave a chance to build social confidence in a world where I succeeded more easily. That confidence and enhanced skill transferred into real life. I am much more social in the real world than I was in years past.

It could be that I am unique in having this experience - but if not, then it could be that for a subset of Aspergians, technology is actually enhancing their social skills. If so, then I think you could argue that technology is making NTs more autistic and autistics more NT. And if that's true, what will future society look like? Will we wind up with a society that is somewhere in the middle between AS and NT?

When it comes to kids - I think that too much immersion in cyber reality too soon can, as you say, be a danger to social development. And for Aspergian people, it could be tempting to completely withdraw into the online world, where one's success in social interactions is more sure, resulting in further isolation. Obviously not what we want. But, if online interaction is used judiciously in concert with real life interactions, these interactions may become the "baby steps" that led to more social successes.

First off LOVED your book. I use parts of it to share with other teachers and parents in school all the time because it so refreshingly honest!!

Also, really thought provoking article. I teach nine 7th grade students with Aspergers and I find that many of them almost "hide away" within technology. While technology assists these students with many tasks daily (esp. writing b/c of fine motor skill issues and even using e-mail and IM to make friends) I find so many of them would rather spend time playing Nintendo DS or Wii, making videos for YouTube, and going on Google than actually interacting with the other kids. While technology can be entertaining, a stress release for some, and even a motivating factor for others, I really agree with Temple Grandin that parents and teachers need to limit the amount of time kids with Aspergers (or any kid) spend in front of a screen. Just like a glass of wine or a cookie technology is good in moderation but that can't be all a kids does. Personally, I know it was a great feeling conquering Mario Brothers 3 as a child or building an awesome town in SimCity, but it was nowhere near the experiences of playing basketball with friends, exploring in the woods, and having sleepovers with friends. While kids with Aspergers may not want to venture out and try these things, I think it is so important that parents/teachers give a little instruction and a big push out the door so kids with Aspergers interact with other people in this big, crazy world. After all, we all need to be a little uncomfortable to really learn a lesson.